Category Archives: Eurovision Posts

Cookie Fonster Uncovers Eurovision 1967: Catching up with 60’s Pop

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Intro Post

< 1966 Review | 1967 Review | 1968 Review >

Introduction

The 1967 edition of Eurovision was hosted in Vienna, Austria, in a building that once was a palace for the Habsburg dynasty. Appropriately enough, I watched it with commentary in Austrian German. This contest began a decline in participating countries that lasted until 1970, after which countries started joining again. This time, only Denmark didn’t return from last year, not to rejoin Eurovision until 1978. Because of this, Eurovision 1966 was the last contest to feature every country that had ever previously participated. I wonder how fans felt when more and more countries started to leave? Maybe they were thinking this contest was soon to die, but they were completely wrong.

Normally in this era of Eurovision, the presenter mostly spoke the host country’s language, plus some obligatory introduction in French and English. However, Erica Vaal went the extra mile and announced the introduction in as many languages as she knew: German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. Then she apologized in English to all the countries whose languages she didn’t have the time to learn. I found that incredibly cool.

This contest returned to the original voting system where each country had ten votes to distribute across each entry. I’m guessing this was done to mitigate bloc voting, and it worked! For this contest, at least. It also caused a bunch of clumsiness on the scoreboard operators’ part.

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Cookie Fonster Revisits Eurovision 1966: Lightening the Overall Mood

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Intro Post

< 1965 Review | 1966 Review | 1967 Review >

Just a warning: This post turned out a lot longer than I expected! It’s the most detail I’ve gone into about a Eurovision contest to date, and it’ll only get wilder from there.

Introduction

Eurovision 1966 was hosted in Luxembourg in the same building as 1962, the last time Luxembourg hosted. It had the same 18 participating countries as last time. Now that Ireland joined the contest, the interest in new countries had simmered down. Until the explosion of new participants in 1993, only seven more countries would debut; all either island countries or outside of Europe,* except Greece. There may not have been any new countries, but the list of countries it was broadcast in continued to grow. According to the contest’s Luxembourgish presenter, it was shown in the same Eastern Bloc countries as last year, plus Morocco and Romania. This makes it the first Eurovision to be broadcast outside of Europe.

The TV airing of this contest started with a lovely orchestrated arrangement of “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”, the winner last year, which began a common pattern of revisiting the contest’s prior hits at the start. It also began the controversial pattern of bloc voting—countries giving maximum points to their closest cultural neighbors. I’ll have lots to say about this topic when I analyze the voting results over the years. Lastly, it was the first year where the language rule was enforced. Aside from Sweden’s song in English last year, there had been a few songs with verses in English or French, but for the next seven years, non-native languages were limited to brief phrases.

I watched the contest with French commentary this time.

* Yes, I know a small part of Turkey is in Europe.

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Cookie Fonster Evaluates Eurovision 1965: The Victory of a Puppeteer

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Intro Post

< 1964 Review | 1965 Review | 1966 Review >

Introduction

We’ve reached the tenth Eurovision Song Contest, and the first of three Eurovisions hosted in Italy! Each one was hosted in a different Italian city, and this was in Naples. For the first time ever, this contest was broadcast outside the European Broadcasting Union: in Czechoslovakia,* Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and the Soviet Union.** This time, I watched it with English commentary, which should be a nice breather from all this Dutch.

Sweden returned after skipping last year, and Ireland entered the contest for the first time, making for 18 countries total. You probably already know Ireland was a highly successful participant in the 80’s and 90’s. They’re the only country to win three years in a row (1992-1994), they’re the first country to win six and seven times (1994, 1996), and they had the most wins of any Eurovision country from 1994 to 2022. However, Sweden has caught up since then, and since 2023, their win record is tied with Ireland. It’s generally accepted that since the language rule was lifted, Ireland and the UK lost their advantage and struggled to shine (with a few lucky exceptions).

The winner of this contest is a fun one: “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” from Luxembourg, probably the most famous Eurovision song of the 60’s. I first heard a portion of it when watching a compilation of all Eurovision winners around April 2022, and it was the first to wow me. I’ve already heard the song in full, but I expect it to be the highlight of this contest anyway.

* Amusingly, I know someone who talks about Czechoslovakia as though it still exists.

** Referred to by David Jacobs, the British commentator, as “Russia”. Now that I think of it, it’s analogous to calling the United Kingdom “England”.

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Cookie Fonster Assesses Eurovision 1964: The Second of Three Lost Years

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Intro Post

< 1963 Review | 1964 Review | 1965 Review >

Introduction

1956, 1964, and 2020 are the “lost years” of Eurovision because you can’t watch a full video recording of any of these contests. The first two because most of the video footage is lost media; the third because COVID-19 forced the contest’s cancellation. Fortunately, the audio of this contest is preserved entirely, and we know exactly who voted for who. This time, countries gave five, three, and one points to their top three songs. This led Italy to beat its nearest rival by almost three times, the most crushing victory in Eurovision history.

Sweden skipped this contest due to student protests, while Portugal made its debut, which kept the number of countries at 16. Since 2017, Portugal has been the most recent first-time winner of Eurovision. Many fans weren’t happy about including Portugal, since back then it was a dictatorship like Spain. Protests against these countries’ inclusion caused the first ever stage invasion in Eurovision history.

Anyway, this contest was hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark, the northernmost and easternmost host city thus far. The presenter spoke mostly in her own language, as was the norm back then. I understand Danish less than Dutch, but more than the other North Germanic languages.

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Cookie Fonster Examines Eurovision 1963: A Narrow Nordic Victory

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Intro Post

< 1962 Review | 1963 Review | 1964 Review >

Introduction

If you thought the whole point of music concerts was to see the singer in person, Eurovision 1963 would beg to differ. For some reason, the singers performed in one room, while the audience watched the shows on a screen in a different room. This apparently caused rumors that the performances were pre-recorded, even though with the technology of that time, that sounded like more trouble than just broadcasting them live.

For the second time, the United Kingdom substituted for a multi-time Eurovision winner: France, which had just celebrated its third victory and didn’t want to host again. Once again, the contest took place in London, specifically the BBC Television Centre. After the bare bones staging in the last two years, Eurovision 1963 returned to fanciful stage shenanigans. This is clear as soon as the singers are all introduced, where they’re backed by recursive mirrors. Too bad the audience didn’t get to see them in color!

The voting system of 1963 was adjusted from last year. This time, countries sent five to one points for their top five songs, which decreased bias towards the second half.

Oh yeah, I guess I’m watching with Dutch commentary again! I can’t speak Dutch, but it’s close enough to German that I can understand some of it. We’re now 60 years till we’ve caught up with the present, which means my grandparents were roughly as old back then as I am today. (I know their years of birth, and one was slightly older than me, the other three slightly younger.)

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Cookie Fonster Dissects Eurovision 1962: A Jury with the Memory of a Goldfish

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Intro Post

< 1961 Review | 1962 Review | 1963 Review >

Introduction

Hosted in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, this edition of Eurovision was remarkably similar to the last one. It had the same 16 countries, marking the first Eurovision with the exact same country lineup as last year, and the votes were again skewed towards late entries. The biggest difference is that the voting system was simplified. This time, the juries gave three, two, and one points to their top three favorite songs respectively. If I was a Eurovision fan back then, I would’ve been a little peeved at this change, but I would understand that it was probably done to speed up the process of tallying votes.

This contest had three singers return from 1960, one of whom also performed in 1958 and 1956. One singer returned from 1959 but for a different country. It looks like this contest will be a similar experience to 1961, except I’ll be listening to Dutch commentary this time.

One more amusing observation: The French-speaking presenter said early on, “Luxembourg, la cœur de l’Europe, va battre ce soir.” (Luxembourg, the heart of Europe, will beat this evening.) Poland’s national selection since 2022 would object to this designation, since its name claims that they’re the heart of Europe. The only explanation is that Europe had a disastrous heart transplant last year.

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Cookie Fonster Explores Eurovision 1961: Big Guys Join, the Little Guy Wins

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Intro Post

< 1960 Review | 1961 Review | 1962 Review >

Introduction

Eurovision 1961 was hosted in Cannes, France, in the exact same building as 1959. This time, I watched a recording from the Dutch channel NOS with its post-2005 logo, but the commentary was in English. I couldn’t make out every word of the commentary, which makes me feel better about my skills in other languages. This Eurovision was hosted during a massive rainstorm, and the commentator says it’s fitting for the tension each country is facing—exactly the sort of humor that British commentary is famed for. We get a little tour of the building before starting the contest, which would become the norm in modern Eurovision.

Sixteen countries participated in this contest, making it the first one with more songs than 1956’s fourteen. It had all countries from 1960, plus three new ones: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia. Spain is the biggest mainstay of these; they’re one of the big guys, always eager to showcase their musical identity. They haven’t tasted victory since the four-way win in 1969, a year after their only solo win, but they’ve come close many times. Finland had terrible luck when the language rule was enforced, and they only won in 2006 with the perfect combo of absurd costumes and banger music. However, they earned second place in 2023 with their own language, which I think is awesome.

Yugoslavia is the only country that has won Eurovision (in 1989) but no longer exists. They’re also the only Slavic country to participate during the Cold War. Though Yugoslavia is no more, its successor states (especially Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia) have a knack for embracing their own culture and sense of humor, unlike some countries in Eurovision. Not all former Yugoslav countries have been as successful—Bosnia and Herzegovina is clogged by financial problems, and Montenegro is best known for their infamous 2012 entry, “Euro Neuro”.

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Cookie Fonster Discusses Eurovision 1960: New Decade, Same Old-Timey Spirit

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Intro Post

< 1959 Review | 1960 Review | 1961 Review >

So far, I’ve published a Eurovision review every other day, but the next one might break the pattern. This is because I’ve started having more to say about every song, and the number of songs has increased. And because I’m soon to start a piano teaching side job at a music store.

Introduction

If a country wins Eurovision multiple times in short succession, they often get hesitant to host it again. This happened with Eurovision 1960: the Netherlands declined hosting again due to expense, so the good old dependable BBC filled in, hosting in London, England. In all but one case, the UK swooped in to host an unwilling or unable country. In fact, of the nine times the UK has hosted Eurovision, five were in place of a different winner.

Luxembourg rejoined this Eurovision, and Norway joined for the first time, making a total of 13 countries. To this day, Norway is a Eurovision mainstay that has only missed two Eurovisions, and they have a respectable three victories. However, Luxembourg was a bigger Eurovision powerhouse in the 60’s to 80’s, with an impressive five wins. The winner of this contest repeated history: just like two years ago, France won a year after the Netherlands. By then, a lot of fans must have wished other countries could get a chance. They’d get their wish soon enough.

This was the first Eurovision where jury members got to hear songs in advance, specifically in the rehearsals. I presume it made them more set on winners once it was voting time.

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Cookie Fonster Critiques Eurovision 1959: A Step Up in Stage Design

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< 1958 Review | 1959 Review | 1960 Review >

Introduction

Eurovision 1959 was hosted in Cannes, France, at the time the southernmost host city. I find it weird that France has only hosted three Eurovisions, the next in 1961 and the last in 1978. France has won Eurovision five times, but one was a four-way tie where the Netherlands hosted next year, and one was after they had hosted last year and three years ago, so the UK hosted next time instead. The UK has filled in as a host country five times, the Netherlands once, but never France. That feels odd for a big-name country, doesn’t it?

In the last contest of the 1950’s, eleven countries competed for the throne. The United Kingdom returned, beginning its ongoing streak of perfect attendance, while Luxembourg skipped. Monaco, another country that usually didn’t send its own residents, was the only newcomer. At the time, my oldest grandparent was 20 years old, and I believe he got married that year. They’re still married today.

The stage of 1959 had revolving doors to show backdrops representing each country, which is a step up in flashiness, or should I say Eurovisioniness, from previous years. These backdrops were used to introduce every contestant and their country, like a predecessor to the flag parades we know today, and every singer performed in front of their backdrop. It was also the only contest where the top three winners all performed at the end.

One more fun fact: 8 out of 11 songs this year are in Germanic languages, and three are in German—more than any other language. Even though I can speak French too, German is a cooler language and more personal to me. Ich hoffe ganz arg, dass die nächste Eurovision wieder Musik auf Deutsch hat.

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Cookie Fonster Analyzes Eurovision 1958: The First “Wait, That Was Eurovision?”

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< 1957 Review | 1958 Review | 1959 Review >

Introduction

The third Eurovision Song Contest set a number of firsts. For one, it’s the first Eurovision hosted in the country that won last time (Hilversum, Netherlands). This tradition would be followed about 75% of the time from 1958 to 1980, continuously from 1981 to 2022, and broken again in 2023. It’s the first Eurovision to feature Sweden, one of the contest’s power players. Since the UK skipped out that year, Sweden’s presence kept the number of countries at ten, and the number of songs in English at zero. It was the first Eurovision where the song length rule was enforced, specifically 3:30 minutes. And finally, it’s the first Eurovision to produce a song more famous than the contest itself—a song that makes people narrow their eyes and say “wait… that was from Eurovision?!”

When reading about Eurovision 1958, I constantly encounter Italy’s iconic entry, but I want to give every song from this contest a chance. Does this Eurovision have some gems hidden in Italy’s shadow? We’ll find out together.

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